Traditionally, it has been the general practice of retailers offering for sale large volume products such as cabinets, cases, chests, tables and the like to purchase such products from suppliers, inventory and display such products on their premises, advertise them for sale to prospective consumers and sell them to such consumers. Such practice, however, has been found to be excessively burdensome, often ineffectual and uneconomical. Such practice has been found to be excessively burdensome because it requires the transportation and handling of a number of large products of diverse configurations, dimensions and weights which require considerable floor space for storage and display, and ineffectual in that the selected types, mixes, designs and dimensions of such products might not appeal to or meet the requirements or specifications of prospective purchasers. Such practice also tends to be uneconomical in that the retailer incurs the expense of the production and overhead costs, freight charges and profit of the supplier, the increased space of the retailer for storing and displaying the products and possibly discounting the price of or discarding poorly selling or otherwise nonselling products.
A pertinent aspect of the present invention is the fact that a segment of the general public has an interest in a craft such as woodworking, particularly as a hobby. Although many of such persons may have various woodworking skills, they generally do not have access to advanced woodworking equipment required to precisely cut and shape wood pieces for building desired products. Furthermore, operating such equipment requires unique skills, knowledge and time normally not available to the general public.
It therefore is the principal object of the present invention to provide a novel method by which a retailer of a line of products may provide such products in an unfinished form to purchasers which then may be finished by such purchasers, and in which an increase and wide variety of products of different designs, configurations and dimensions are made available, such line of products may be readily and instantly revised from time to time in terms of type, design, configuration and dimensions in responding to public demand, the storage and display floor space of such products may be substantially reduced, the discounting and discarding of slow moving, discontinued and obsolete products may be instantaneously eliminated, the profitability of the retailer would be materially enhanced, custom specifications would be available to purchasers and the cost of such products to the purchaser would be more affordable.